TO DO OR NOT TO DO

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 31, 17 February 1928, Page 14

TO DO OR NOT TO DO

-_ THE DEMONSTRATION PROBLEM AN INGENIOUS PLAN. An American radio company manager States: When a prospective buyer comes into our store and asks for a demonstration, cur first move is to ascertain whether he is sincere and really intends to buy, provided the set suits him, or whether he is just another professional demonstration hound. It is not always possible to tell the one from the other by sight or from the preliminary convetsation. If it were, the "professional" could be disposed of very quickly. Here is a system we use which has proven very effective and which does not ‘Offend the real buyer. We agree with the prospect that a demonstration is a fine thing. Then we explain to him that we have every faith in the set that we sell. We impress him with the fact that that is the reason we handle the makes of sets which he sees before him. We further stress the fact that we will put our set up against any other make sold in this city and let him be the judge. Then we spring the real punch to our little idea. DEMONSTRATE COMPETING SETS. We tell him that the only way to compare sets is to have them all together in the same place, on the same night, and to tune them in on the same station, one after the other, then he can decide on the spot which is the set to buy. At no time do we act as ‘if we didn’t want to demonstrate our ‘Set; on the contrary, we make it plain that we do want to demonstrate, but ‘in competition with the other makes sold ‘in this city. After we have elalorated on the necessity of trying out the different sets on the same evening, we state that any time that will suit our competitors will also suit us. We urge him to go to the other dealers whose sets he is interested in and find out when they can give him a demonstration; then if he will let us know ahead of time we will be on deck too, with our set, ready for the test and demonstration, The result of this offer is that the demonstration ‘nuisance’ is scated away, never to return. The sincere Prospect comes back and in many instances we sell a set, frequently without the comparative demonstration test. At no stage of the gaine have we offended the prospect or even told him that we won’t make a demonstration. On the contrary, we have jumped at the chance to make a demonstration, and under the most trying vonditions, This little stunt has sayed our company countless hours of valuable time and hundreds of dollars,